


To Stir the Heart

by Focalist



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-05-20 17:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19381798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Focalist/pseuds/Focalist
Summary: "Words are not meant to stir the air only: they are capable of moving greater things." - Natsume SōsekiA chance encounter with a passage from Sōseki's "Kokoro" spurs Lisa into a rare dalliance with literature. Rather than soothe her heart, however, the words agitate the emotions she'd been keeping inside. At the same time, Lisa's impromptu reading buddy, Rinko, grapples with her own nascent feelings.As the girls navigate the thorny path of blossoming love, they find solace in each other and in the joys and heartaches they share.





	1. That Moment

The shelves in the bookstore were old-looking things, made of dark and heavy wood, sanded smooth and varnished and then smoothed further by the countless that had hands slid across them while fingers traced the titles of the books lined up there. It was a special kind of pretty, Lisa decided, that you couldn’t find in bigger bookstores like Kinnokuniya, nor even in Tsutaya (though Tsutaya was definitely more  _ aesthetic _ all in all).

Not that she was an authority on bookstores. Mostly she went in looking for cute stationery or folders to hold rough drafts of Roselia’s songs. Those things were easy to find—they stood out naturally—but the book she had in mind, well, where to start?   

“It was about love so… is it a romance?” she muttered as she scanned the shelves. “But then it sounded old, so maybe it’s a classic?”

“Imai-san?”

Lisa looked up to see half of a familiar face peering at her from behind the shelf. “Rinko!”

“Good evening,” Rinko said. Her voice was as soft as ever but the smile on her face was something Lisa had been seeing more and more often since their trip to the beach a few weeks back with Ako and the others. “I’m surprised to see you here. N-not that it’s weird or anything. Um…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lisa said. “It’s true that I don’t go to bookstores much. Actually, there’s a certain book I’m looking for but I’m not sure which section it’s in.”

“Oh? What’s its title?”

“I think it was  _ Kokoro _ . By, uh, who was it…?”

“Natsume Sōseki?”

“Yeah! So he’s really famous, huh?”

Rinko nodded. “I think it would be over here.” She darted around the shelf and down another aisle. Lisa followed to a section marked  _ Works from the Meiji Era _ . 

“They sort things a bit differently here, don’t they?” Lisa said as they browsed the titles.

“Mm. It takes some getting used to, but I think I like it,” she said in a somewhat apologetic tone. “I didn’t know you were interested in, well, older novels.”

“Ahaha~ Well, the teacher mentioned a quote from it earlier today and I thought it was really, you know…” A warmth crept into her cheeks. “Romantic.”

She braced for the inevitable who-do-you-like follow-up. Instead, she got: “What was the quote?”

Right. This was Rinko, after all. It was kind of hard to imagine Rinko getting worked up over love.

“I don’t really remember. Which is why I have to read it! When I run into it, I’m sure I’ll recognize it.”

“Strange. I don’t think it’s here,” Rinko muttered. Even as Lisa’s shoulders began to slump,though, Rinko crossed to the neighboring shelf,  _ Works from the Taishō Era _ . A moment later, she lit up happily. “Here it is, Imai-san.”

“Thanks, Rinko! I owe you one.”

“Not at all,” Rinko said. She handed a copy to Lisa and clasped another to her chest.”

“Oh, are you getting one too?”

“Yes. I figured if you liked the quote that much, it must be quite moving.”

“Awesome! Then we can be reading buddies, huh? Though I’m kinda slow, ahaha~”

“Don’t worry. Ako and I are on NFO so much I don’t get to read as much as I used to.”

“Ako’s something else, huh? Between Roselia, dance rehearsals and your gaming marathons, I’m surprised she’s still got so much energy!”

“It’s probably all the power sealed in her evil eye.”

“Haha! You’re right. If only we could all have one, right? But I guess that’s what makes Ako special.”

Rinko laughed and nodded.

“Oh, and by the way—I may not look it, but I actually like traditional Japanese stuff too. So if you know of any cool stuff like that, just let me know.”

A gentle autumn breeze swept over them as the shop door slid open.

“I’ll do that,” Rinko said. She waved goodbye and set off.

“Hey! You know we’re both heading to the station, right?”

“O-of course,” Rinko said. She fell into step beside Lisa and they made their way across the city, bathed in the purple glow of dusk.

 

***

 

“By the way, I saw Imai-san at the bookstore the other day.”

It took Ako a moment to reply, distracted as she was by directing her army of ghasts and ghouls against a rival force of undead. “Oh, like, Tsutaya?”

“No, Fujishiro.” Having drawn the enemy undead into a single, clustered mass, Demon Princess Ako slipped momentarily into the shadows before reappearing some distance away—just as Rinko finished her spell input, unleashing a brilliant pyroclastic torrent that filled the screen.

“That small place near the school? Lisa-senpai was there?” A few more sword swings and cantrips had mopped up what remained of the enemy mob. “You get anything in salvage?”

RinRin went through the half-dozen stacks of  _ Half-Ingested Matter  _ with her salvage kit, which turned up no more than the usual crafting components. “Commons. And yes, I was surprised to see her there too.”

“Ughhh. Alright, next area.” Demon Princess Ako set off at a run, breaking off every so often into a tumble or a jump. “What was Lisa-senpai doing at Fujishiro?”

“She was looking for a specific book.  _ Kokoro. _ Do you know it?”

“Nope. Sounds, hmm… kinda serious? What’s it about? A dark spirit sealed in the heart of an unsuspecting host?”

Rinko giggled, dusting static through the VoIP channel. “I’m afraid not. It is quite serious, though, as far as I’ve read. Imai-san thought it was a romance novel.”

Ako laughed. “Now that sounds like Lisa-senpai.”

They reached another group of undead and Ako exploded into action, swarms of minions emerging from shadowed portals in the earth. The mob thus engaged, RinRin began her spellcasting.

“Hey, Rin-rin. What do you think Lisa-senpai’s type is?”

“Hmm…” Rinko only vaguely registered the question, focused as she was on the key inputs for her spell combo. “I think she’d be a bard-type. Or maybe a holy knight? She’s always focused on helping people out.”

“Not that~ I mean, like, in romance!”

“Ohh.” A slide input conjured pools of lava beneath their foes. They struggled, mired in the molten earth, as Ako continued to slash ribbons around them. “Wouldn’t it be Minato-san?”

“Hm, someone cool like Yukina-senpai, huh?”

Rinko faltered, suddenly aware of just what Ako had asked and what exactly she had answered. It was only a moment—but it was enough.

“Or!” Ako said, giddy over the voice channel, “Or do you mean Minato-san herself?!”

“Uh, I mean…” Rinko tried to keep nerves out of her voice. Though it was definitely a better reaction than she’d hoped for. In fact, wasn’t this a chance to test the water?  _ Here goes.  _ “Don’t you think so? They’re always so in-sync, aren’t they? In the studio, at school…”

“Hey, did you get any?”

“W-what?!”

“All I got were commons again. What about you, Rin-Rin?”

“Oh, right.” She’d been too distracted to realize they’d cleared the last of their remaining enemies. She hurriedly ran through her share of the loot with her salvage kit. “I got one!”

“Just two left!” Demon Princess Ako pumped her fist.  “Hey, you think Lisa-senpai and Yukina-senpai would sync well in a game? If they joined us, I bet we could clear these things in no time.”

“I can’t imagine Minato-san playing an MMO…”

“I guess. Okay! Next! My dark hunger is yet to be sated!”

RinRin fell into step with Demon Princess Ako, who was already jumping and tumbling her way to the next spawning ground. It seemed she didn’t think much of the Yukina-Lisa idea either way. 

“Hey, Rin-Rin.”

“Yes?”

“You sure you’re not looking for anything? We’ve been farming for over an hour.”

“I’m sure. Besides, we can’t have your dark hunger going unsated, right?”

“Right!” Ako’s laughter echoed over the mic. And for the moment, that was all Rinko was looking for.

 

***

Lisa woke with a start—for what must have been the fourth or fifth time that night. She blinked, looked blearily around. The book was on the table, closed, a few inches to the left of where her head would’ve been just a moment earlier.

_ Guess I should call it a night. _

 She picked up the book and started flipping the pages. She was just about one-third… or was it halfway through? Must’ve been closer to half, right? She’d been at it for over an hour after all.

As she flicked through the pages, scanning for the last section she’d reached, a stray phrase caught her attention.

_ Could it be…? _

She stopped and went back a few pages, skimmed the text— _ There!— _ She slammed her hands down on the book, each on one side of the quote in question. Slowly, she slid her left palm off to the side, revealing each line as she read it.  _ Yes. This is it. _

Her phone buzzed.

She pinned the book open with her elbow and checked the message.

_ Yukina~: Are you okay? I heard a noise. _

_ Oops. _

Lisa fired off a quick reply.  _ I’m okay! Just dropped the book I was reading. What about you? It’s pretty late. _

The next message came a few seconds later.

_ Yukina~: Stuck with some lyrics. You’re right, though. It’s late. Don’t stay up too long. We have rehearsals tomorrow. _

_ I’m just about to turn in too. Good night, Yukina~ _

She turned back to the book—Yukina’s policy seemed to be never to respond to a text that didn’t really need an answer—and she went back to the passage in the book.

This was it. She’d found it, finally, though more by luck than anything else. Still, it couldn’t hurt to read just this part, right? Not like she hadn’t heard it already. She’d just read over it, then close the book, and then tomorrow, she’d pick up from where she really left off.

But for now, the words were calling to her. And so, her hands framing the lines in their exactness, she read the words, voicing them aloud in her mind.

_ “Like the first whiff of burning incense, or like the taste of one's first cup of saké, there is in love that moment when all its power is felt. There may be fondness, but not love, between two people who have come to know each other well without ever having grasped that moment.” _

After turning off the lights, Lisa stood by the window and drew the curtain back a finger’s breadth. The light still shone in the window across from hers.

She slipped into bed and as she drifted into slumber, she wondered vaguely what saké tasted like and how it could be anything like incense, when they smelled nothing at all alike. Or was it that when you drank it, saké smoldered just like incense did. Just like she did whenever thought about the light that shone through the window across from hers.


	2. The Loneliest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Youth is the loneliest time of all.” - Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki
> 
> A rehearsal gone sour forces Roselia's members to go separate ways for an afternoon - or will it be longer? The seed of doubt, once sown, can fracture even foundations of stone.

_ “Youth is the loneliest time of all.” _

-  Kokoro _ by Natsume Sōseki _

 

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

It was too fast for anyone to really react to it. Sayo stepped smoothly over to the amp, turned it off and unplugged, slid her guitar into its case and shouldered it. It had the practiced ease and speed of someone who’d done it countless times, which of course she had, and Lisa was just starting to say “Sayo, hold—” when their guitarist was on the stairs out of the rehearsal room.

Yukina uttered a formless syllable of surprise. Lisa cast her a looked that mingled sympathy and reproach. “I’ll go after her,” she said, returning her bass to its stand quite clumsily by comparison, and then rushing out. This time, though Yukina’s lips moved, no sound came out.

A moment later, she glanced at the corner where Ako and Rinko were each stationed behind their instruments. There was an unfamiliar shadow over her expression.

Although Roselia’s frontwoman was uncommunicative in every respect, Rinko had learned that she had certain tells that could be read as with any raid boss ( _ never mind that maybe she shouldn’t have thought of their leader as a raid boss _ )—if she sang to the walls, eyes closed, there was something wrong with the music; if she slowly surveyed the room, she was pleased, but looking for what could be made better still; if she smoldered at some sight unseen, it meant she had decided it was herself that needed to be improved.

But in that moment, Rinko found Yukina inscrutable.

“Let’s run through that again.” She strode over to the side of the room and picked up one of the studio guitars, a pale blue ESP, plugged it in and gave it a tentative strum. She tweaked the pegs, strummed again, repeated this twice. “Okay. Let’s start.”

Yukina’s face was a study in stillness with the exception of her eyes, whose golden irises danced with minute steps, like tiny, mysterious objects on a liquid surface. “Rinko.”

“Y-yes.”

“That was where you enter. Did you not recognize the chords?”

“S-sorry.” Yukina’s facility with the guitar was far from Sayo’s but Rinko did register, if absentmindedly, that she had played the same opening notes. And in any case—

“In any case, you should always be keeping the measure.”

“Yes, of course.”

“That goes for you too, Ako.”

“Yes, Yukina-senpai!”

“Again.” Yukina began strumming. And then, just as promptly, she stopped, as the door clicked faintly at the top of the stairs. Twelve footsteps, then Lisa appeared: sweaty, short of breath, more upset than Rinko could recall seeing her.

“Yukina.”

She looked up at Lisa, but said nothing.

Lisa turned to Ako and Rinko and, with a smile that would be perfectly natural except for the situation, said, “Let’s wrap up here for today. I think we all need a break.”

Rinko and Ako exchanged glances. Rinko flicked her eyes to the right, where the exit was. Ako nodded.

“I can keep going, Lisa-senpai!” Ako said.

Wrong response. Rinko stammered a correction, “U-understood, Imai-san. M-Minato-san, Ako-chan and I will be going, then. We... have tests to study for.”

“I see. It’s important not to fall behind in school, either.” But Yukina’s thoughts were already elsewhere.

“I’ll update you guys on the group chat,” Lisa said. “Take care on the way home, you two.”

Rinko gathered her belongings, said goodbye and ascended the stairs. Ako followed with her drumsticks in one hand and her cymbal bag in the other.

"We're going?" Ako whispered as they reached the top of the stairs.

"That's why I did that thing, Ako-chan." Rinko mimicked jerking her eyes to the right.

"I thought you were calling a target! Like, Ako-chan, focus skills on Yukina-senpai!"

"I think... we should leave them alone for now. It seems like Yukina-san and Lisa-san will have some things to sort out."

The sun was setting over the city and golden light spilled into CiRCLE through the gaps in the posters mapped across its glass storefront. The staff member smiled at the two girls as they ascended.

The staff member nodded a greeting at the two girls as they emerged. “Tough week for rehearsals, eh?  Could get you some shaved ice to cool your heads, if you like.”

“Ooh, that sounds good. What do you think, Rin-Rin?”

“We have tests, Ako-chan. History, remember?”

Ako groaned. “Sorry, Staff-san~ Looks like we must muster our forces against, um, ancient arcane lore!”

“And I was so close to a sale, too.” The staff member made a face of mock disappointment. “Well, we’ll be here when you’re craving cold sweets.”

They settled on each getting a drink for the way home, then strode out into the fading light. 

"Hey, Rin-Rin, what did you mean about Yukina-senpai and Lisa-senpai?"

"Hmm..." Rinko turned the words over in her mind for a while before speaking.  Ako-chan, do you think Hikawa-san will be okay?”

“Of course! Once she’s feeling better, she’ll nail that part like—” Ako half-hummed, half-screeched her impression of the melody. “You know, with her usual Sayo-style power!”

Rinko thought about this too. "I guess you're right. In the long run." But for now, Rinko thought, things were going to get complicated.

But Ako was already starting on some obscure episode in history, when a shogun swore a pact with a demon to eliminate a corrupt sohei monastery.

"... thought they'd be overwhelmed by the tides of darkness. But you know what beats darkness?"

"...Stronger darkness?"

"Exactly!"

Rinko laughed despite herself.

Only time would tell how things turned out.

 

***

 

“Yukina.”

She twitched at the mention of her name but, to her credit, met Lisa’s gaze. “How was Hikawa-san?” she mumbled.

“I don’t know,” Lisa said. Almost snapped but it was good to at least see Yukina concerned for their guitarist. Even if it was a bit late. “How does she run so fast with all that weight on her…? But that’s not the point.”

Yukina turned away. Her grip tightened ever so slightly around the neck of the guitar.

“Yukina, you…” She sighed. “Don’t you think that was too much?”

“No.”

“But—”

“I don’t say things to hurt people.”

“That’s not what I was saying.” Lisa said, the frost melting off her tone. She pulled a chair and sat a few feet from Yukina, where she could read her mood in the shuffling of feet and twitching of wrists.  Her friend was reverting to her usual defense—the same things that had gotten her so far as the Lone Wolf Songstress. Things that, Lisa had worried for some time, might cause trouble with the band.

“Then what is it?”

“How do you think that sounded from Sayo’s perspective?”

“It was a simple statement. And Hikawa-san typically maintains a professional attitude. Her reaction was… unexpected.”

It really wasn’t but then Yukina’s powers of social inference were still on their way to average. “It’s been a long couple of weeks. You’ve written the most intense guitar melody yet. Sayo’s been pushing herself hard—as hard as you are on yourself.  How do you think she’d react? How would  _ you _ react, Yukina?”

“I’d simply have to—”

“What if I told you you were wasting your time?”

Yukina’s hands clenched so suddenly the guitar seemed to emit a plaintive groan. But with a steady set to her jaw, she carried on as if nothing had happened: “... to try harder.”

Lisa scooted closer and put a hand on Yukina. She’d broken through her guard. Now it was time again for gentleness. “You and Sayo are a lot alike. But sometimes that makes the differences harder to see—because just when you think they’d take something the same way, suddenly they don’t.”

Yukina nodded.

“Talk to her, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Well then, I guess we should clean up.” Lisa stood and picked up her seat. Just as she moved to return it, a lilting series of notes sounded from behind her.

“We still have twenty minutes.”

“Right, right.” She put the chair down again and stepped over to her bass. She shouldered it and gave it a few tentative plucks to see if the tuning was still good—she’d handled it rather roughly just a while ago, after all. “So, where do we pick up from?”

Yukina strummed a few chords, two short, one long and lingering. “Let’s start with that.”

“Hmm, that was…” Lisa tried out a few positions with her fretting hand. None of them seemed quite right. “Ahaha~ Sorry but I don’t seem to remember what was supposed to go with that.”

Yukina smirked. She strummed the chords again, adding a playful tremble to the end. “Whatever you feel like.”

“Ohh, so it’s a new bass pattern, huh? Let’s see…”

“No.” The smirk softened into a smile. “Practice is over, Lisa. Whatever you feel like.”

“Oh.” Lisa felt more than a smile creeping onto her face. “Got it, Yukina.”

 

***

 

Sayo awoke at dusk. Her neck was sore on one side, the opposite from which her head had tilted in her sleep; and her left foot, caught under her right leg, was numb. She shifted into a more comfortable position and the painful rush of feeling back into her foot helped drive the groggy fog from her mind.

Her guitar was in its stand a few inches away and she had to will herself not to reach for it. She had to practice, yes, but there were other things she had to do, too. Like making dinner.

She descended the stairs—ignoring the blinking alert on her phone as she passed it; who knew what else Roselia would have to say—and headed to the kitchen. There were two aprons on the rack, identical in the simple cut of their cream-colored fabric, but almost entirely different in every other respect: where one was adorned with nothing more than a name written in tidy black logograms, the other one was adorned with a sprawling, swirling scribble of a signature, with words and numbers scattered all over it. Sayo took the former and put it on. The latter would likely remain untouched throughout the entire week—not like Hina ever made a mess while cooking. Not like Hina ever made a mess of anything.

Sayo put the thoughts aside for the moment—they would still be there, simmering though she put a lid on them—and turned her attention to preparing the food. Making dinner was a welcome respite from, well, most of everything else. In submitting herself to a recipe, she could let go of the inexactitudes of life and focus on more easily measured things. These could still be confusing but she was becoming comfortable with them. And even an imperfect meal could fortify the body, could satisfy, if not delight, the palate.

The steady rhythm of the knife, the low fermata of a boiling skillet, the staccato pop and bubble of cuts of meat in the oil. For half an hour, this was the only music she needed concern herself with.

She had just finished setting the table when the door opened. Then a voice, bright and certain in its address, “Nee-chan!”

Hina practically tumbled into the dining room. Her hair was a little worse for wear, which meant she’d probably come from practice. “Oh! Tonkatsu? Smells zappin’!”

Sayo shrugged and carried on setting the table. The aroma was quite enticing, true, but the taste would be the ultimate test and— “Huh? Hina, what’s in that bag?”

 “Oh, this!” Hina hefted a large-ish bag that she’d had in her left hand the whole time. “On the way home, I felt like having some fries, so I bought a bunch from the restaurant. But it didn’t feel quite right just buying fries, so I thought I’d get a burger. I wasn’t sure if you’d want one—and you didn’t answer my message—so I got you one too.”

A vein throbbed in Sayo’s forehead. “I see. Well, I’ve already made dinner as you can see.”

“Mhmm~ No problem! I’m extra hungry after practice. I’ve got room for both.” She had opened the paper bag and was already unwrapping a burger.

“They don’t go together.”

“What?! Cutlets and fries are a boppin’ combination!”

“The textures don’t match at all.”

“Eeh… I’ve been craving fries, though...”

“Ugh, just eat what you want then!” Sayo punctuated her outburst by dropping a stack of saucers roughly onto the table.

“...Nee-chan?”

“Just eat what you want. I’m not hungry.” She made for the stairs. “And I have a lot to practice tonight. Don’t bother me.”

“What? But what about your—”

“Just eat my share of… of whatever! Your appetite’s all worked up, isn’t it?” She pounded her way up the stairs. “Two problems solved. Teamwork, right?”

“Hey, Nee-chan—”

 Sayo slammed the door shut. Leaned back against it. Reached lamely for her guitar. But she was running on empty in more ways than one.

She could feel vibrations in the floor: soft, tentative things that fumbled their way to her door and stopped there. Knocked. Then, after a long, still and silent moment, departed.

Fries. Of all things, fries.

What kind of person flipped out over fries?

A Sayo kind of person, that’s what. A loser. An idiot. An asshole.

A cook who couldn’t fry strips of pork without a step-by-step guide.

A guitarist who couldn’t get her part right after two weeks of practice.

A shitty older sister who flipped out because her sister happened to be craving fries the same day she’d already cooked dinner—and only because she hadn’t bothered to check her own phone in the first place. 

That kind of useless, pointless, hopeless piece of trash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a sudden idea of what Sayo's part in this story could be and, while it means this will be going the, ahem, "scenic" route for the romantic arcs, I'm rather looking forward to the possibilities. A story inspired by Kokoro needs more than a little melancholy, after all.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy and thanks in advance for any feedback!

**Author's Note:**

> Several months ago, I read Natsume Sōseki's "Kokoro" and was shaken by its sheer emotional power. I'd highlighted some of the more notable passages and, as they bounced around in my head, the ideas for this story began to take shape. Lisa and Yukina were the first pairing that came to mind, but Rinko and Ako's dynamic seemed perhaps more interesting to explore--then I thought, why not both?
> 
> So here it is, the beginning of a foray into two relationships growing side-by-side. (Sayo will show up later on, too!)
> 
> Hope you enjoy!


End file.
